The present invention relates to an image processing device, a program, an image processing method, and the like.
When still images are continuously captured in time series at given time intervals, or when a spatial object is covered by a number of images, or when a movie is captured, and each image that forms the movie is used as a still image, for example, a very large number of temporally or spatially continuous images (hereinafter may be referred to as “image sequence”) are acquired. In such a case, it is likely that the images that are closely situated in the image sequence (i.e., images that are close to each other temporally or spatially) are similar images, and it is not likely that it is necessary to check all of a large number of images in order to determine the captured information. Since the number of images may be tens of thousands or more, it takes time for the user to check all of the images.
Therefore, it has been desired to summarize the original image sequence using an image sequence that includes a smaller number of images by deleting images from the original image sequence. This process is hereinafter referred to as “image summarization process”. For example, JP-A-2009-5020 discloses an image summarization method that extracts a scene change boundary image included in the image sequence, or an image that represents the image sequence, and allows images from which the information represented by the image sequence can be easily determined to remain.
When applying an image summarization technique in the medical field, for example, it is necessary to prevent a situation in which an area that cannot be observed occurs due to deletion of an image in order to ensure that a disease can be reliably observed. In particular, it is necessary to ensure that an important area such as a lesion area or an abnormal area can be reliably observed.